Pesqueras protection victory for Javea, Costa Blanca

JAVEA town hall ordered a villa-owner to pulldown unauthorised steps built down the Ambolo cliffs.
The stairway blocks access to a Pesquera, an emotive reminder of Javea’s past when local men, often agricultural workers, supplemented their incomes and their families’ diets by fishing from rickety platforms on the cliff-face.
These were reached by precarious tracks including the pathway, known as the Pesquera de Pinet, that the property owner modified for his own use to reach the beach. The Javea Institute of Oceanographic Research (IROX) lodged a formal complaint in April and the town hall announced that the owner has now been ordered to demolish the unauthorised and illegal construction which blocks the Pesquera and invades a maritime-terrestrial zone.
Protecting the paths, a symbol of the past Javea and other coastal towns like Benitachell, is one of IROX’s greatest challenges, the organisation declared.
“Any success in defending Javea’s heritage is a success for us all,” a spokesman said.